Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-03-13
Singular Superstition in Uiiapooi.

l-COtSinutLl
An occurrence took place recently In
Ullspool which illustrates the strong
bo'd that old superstitions still retain
among the people Of the Highlands. a
woman of weak intellect named Ann
Mscrae, about seventy years OF age,
and who resided with q sister and
nephew ut Moss Cottages, scarcely half
n mile from the village, committed SUI.
eide by drowningh enelf in the Ullapool
river, close by her home. No one, how
ever. seemed TO care to have the body re-
covered until the police got notice OF
the affair, and two constables were
dispatched to the place. Notwithstand-
ing the difficulty experienced in bring
ing the body ashore, owing to the depth
Mt which it lay and the rocky surround
ings of the place, not soul in the
crowd which began to gather would
render the slightest assistance, though
repeatedly asked to do 20. The
police, however, managed to re-
cover the body, which was then
removed to on clubhouse, the use OF
which was granted by Mr.. X. Maken-
zie, Of Moorfelds, as neither friend
nor neighbor of the deceased would
give the corpse admission upon any ac-
count A coffin was obtained and q
horse and cart procured to convey the
body to the village burying-ground.
By this time q crowd of about sixty
men had collected. They deforced
the authorities and peremptorily
refused to allow the remains of
suicide to be taken to any
burying-ground which was within sight
Of the sea or of cultivated land, as such
step would prove disastrous both to
fishing and to agriculture, or, in the
words Of the almost universal belief Of
the crofting fishing community % the
northwest, it would cause famine (or
dcarth) on the sea and idnd. Some of
those in the crowd found great fault
with the police for taking the body out
on the wrong side of the river The
police, OF course, were powerless
against such numbers, and the re-
suit was that the horse was unyoked
and the cart on which the remains
lay was wheeled about and convey
ed for several miles over the hills,
where, beyond sight OF sea and cult
waited land, the body was unceremo-
niously deposited in mother earth. The
police, who followed at respectful dis
lance, noted that the remains were
buried about three miles from Ullapool,
on the way to Rhidorroch Forest. The
Fiscal at Dingwall has been communi-
Gated with, and it is expected that
investigations will be made into
the affair. This belief regarding
suicides is deeply rooted, and the
custom has generally been to inter
them in out-of-the-way places among
the lonely solitudes of the mountains,
and such burials are not by any means
uncommon. A few years ago the body
of a man who had committed suicide
was washed ashore on Little Loeb
broom. A rough deal-box was hastily
made, into which the corpse was put,
after which all the tools used were
sunk in the sea. The box with its
CHASTITY cargo was then towed by ropes
across the Loeb, thence dragged up the
hillsides to a lonely nook behind that
range of mountains which stretches TO
the west of Dundonnell, where the box,
rope, and all was hastily buried. Ac-
cording to the popular belief, had the
body been left in the Loeb or on shore
within sight of it not a single herring
would have ventured near it.